Gleeson

Industry: Construction
Location: United Kingdom

Employees: 70

How Gleeson uses Sign In App to transform visibility across multiple construction sites

When you’re running a large number of active building sites and coordinating hundreds of subcontractors every single day, simply knowing who’s on site can feel like a full-time job.
For Gleeson, a major UK house builder that delivers around 2,000 homes a year, it was becoming increasingly cumbersome to manage with tools that were showing their age.

That’s where Sign In App came in.

The Challenge

Gleeson had been using a different Visitor Management System for a number of years. But as IT Director Costas explained, the platform wasn’t evolving to meet their needs:

“The cost was rising without any corresponding enhancements; essential features like automated sign-in and a dedicated employee application were not provided.”

With renewal coming up, Costas and his team set out to find something more modern, more flexible, and more cost-effective for the realities of a construction environment where:

People enter from multiple access points
Traditional access control doesn’t always make sense
Thousands of subcontractors rotate in and out
Health & safety information needs to be tracked
Fire evacuation visibility is essential

The Solution

To tackle the challenge of managing thousands of people across open construction sites, Gleeson implemented a Sign In App setup that worked for both permanent staff and subcontractors.

1. A Seamless Experience for Employees

As well as the iPad kiosk, Gleeson also deployed the Companion App across all corporate devices, giving employees a quick, consistent way to check in as soon as they arrive on site or in the office. Auto sign-in handles most check-ins automatically, and simple reminder prompts help capture anyone who might otherwise forget. This approach keeps the process light-touch for staff while ensuring accurate visibility across the business.

2. On-Site iPads for Subcontractors

For the thousands of subcontractors who rotate through Gleeson’s sites each day, the team installed iPads at every site. This addressed two key barriers: many contractors don’t have devices suitable for app installs, and others prefer not to use personal phones. The iPads offer an obvious, easy-to-use check-in point.

Subcontractors follow a quick on-screen workflow that covers health and safety questions, required declarations, and relevant details. All data is captured instantly and feeds into Gleeson’s central reporting.

The Data

Once Gleeson had Sign In App in place, the real value was in the data behind every check-in. What started as a straightforward digital sign-in solution quickly evolved into a powerful operational insight tool.

Each subcontractor sign-in captures essential details — their trade, the company they work for, where they’re signing in, and when they enter and leave a site. Costas’ team connected this data directly into PowerBI, and that integration changed the game completely.

Gleeson now has real-time dashboards that show:

Which trades are present on each site
How workforce levels rise and fall throughout the day, week, or month
Whether a site has the right mix of trades to stay on track
Where gaps or bottlenecks are emerging
Which suppliers may be falling behind on their commitments

As Costas explains:

“This solution empowers construction directors and management teams to promptly identify underperforming trades, engage with suppliers, and implement corrective actions, significantly improving efficiency and reducing delays.”

What was once a check-in tool is now a source of early warning signals, helping teams prevent

delays and keep build programs moving. It’s shifted from simple attendance tracking to true real-time site management.

Other Wins Along the Way

Beyond day-to-day sign-ins, Gleeson has seen a number of unexpected improvements since rolling out Sign In App.

Fire drills run more smoothly, with marshals using the companion app to check people off in real time. Admin and reception teams picked up the system quickly too — the portal and app are simple to use, so training has been light and straightforward.

Next on the roadmap is moving weekly-paid staff onto Sign In App’s Time & Attendance module, which will finally replace a manual, time-consuming process and feed hours directly into payroll.

Adoption across the organisation has also been noticeably stronger than with their previous system. People find Sign In App easier, more flexible, and more intuitive — and it shows.

There are still a couple of improvements on Gleeson’s wishlist, but overall, Costas sums it up simply:

“In general, it’s been a success. Engagement is a lot higher than what we had before.”

In Summary

Gleeson didn’t just modernise their sign-in process, they opened the door to real-time visibility across every site. With clearer insight into who’s on the ground and when, teams can build faster, spot issues sooner, and keep thousands of workers safer.

“This has become a whole business tool, not just a sign in/emergency system. We can actually react in real time and understand what’s happening on our sites before delays start to cost us time and money.”

What began as a simple access and safety tool has evolved into a powerful operational dashboard that supports smarter, faster decision-making every day.